The Labor enquirer., 1887-05-21

y.
against them, their friends unappfised Of
their fate, simply on suspicion Of their
holding socialistic views, all this in the
name Of Flaw and ORDER" in the city OF
Chicago, under the stars and stripes; if
he had recalled the acts of deputy mar
shals, representing those venerated
stripes, shooting innocent men, women
and children for helloing at them, or of
the militia, representing the same sacred
banner, shooting down school boys and
old men, with workingmen and women,
indiscriminately, in Wisconsin, Chicago
and elsewhere, or of PinkertQn's private
army of hired murderers ravaging the
land and shooting men for laughing at
them-as in Chicago27-schOol boys for
throwing snowballs, as in Jersey City, and
driving workingmen back to their slave
pens when out on strike for their rights,
while the American flag is impotent to
protect or avenge its humble citizens; if
the fact had been brought forward that
freedom of public speech was already
practically suppressed in nearly every
large city in the nation-instance Chica-
go's imperialistic suppression of all open
air Observation-Disclosures, too, that when
the writer of this, acting a committee, ap-
piled to the chief of police of Kansas City
for leave to hold a meeting on Market
square, he blpf1y pointed to the Gatling
gun in handy proximity and blurting out
that that was to use on them, refused the
people their own square, all in the name
of the star-spangled banner: had he but
cited these glaring facts would the ques-
ton of embl ems VS. principles have come
amiss?
Or if the speaker had but recited the
tyranny confronted in his own history of
work for the cause of reform, how he was
ordered out of the park at Ottawa, Kan
sas, because the 'law and order league"
mayor had decided he did not like such
discussions; how for similar reasons the
mayor of Parsons, Kansas, back by the
law and order league, ordered him to
leave on penalty of being tarred and
feathered (but he missed the train; how
the most successful Labor meetings ever
held in Kansas City were broken up and
dispersed because the chief of police said
he was beginning to talk Anarchical; how
in st. Joseph, Mo-, when he appealed for
equal justice for all, and for the majest,
of the law, insisting that the police and
the capitalist be held accountable to law
as well as the poor man, and that the per-
jured miscreants go not free simply be-
cause they wear the blue, decked with
star and sport billy; how BrOder, chief
of police, jerked him from his stand and
rushed him to the station house; how un-
der the 'fiag of freedom" y in St. Louis
the Market Square meetings were broken
up with policemen's billies, because his
teachings were unpalatable to the capital
lists: if he had presented these facts, all de-
veloped and practiced under the protect
ing folds of the ''stars and stripes" might
it not have been pertinent question, and
perfectly proper, if Walter VrOoman had
asked it, if the real object of patriotism
be not devotion to those eternal principles
of liberty and equality for which our
fathers fought and died, rather than any
emblem however honored in the past.
And in the light of the present facts,
showing the absolute capture of that for
mer emblem of liberty BY our capitalistic
lords and masters, is/it not a question
worthy wise man TO ask; '''What else, in
itself, is any flag more than rag on a
stick" Ifsuch inquiry be crime will
some one explain it.
/ HARRY c. VROOMAN.